Windows 7 - Attempting to Hibernate Results in Locking Instead

Overview

This post details how I fixed a problem with my laptop where attempting to hibernate the computer resulted in it locking instead.

This seems to be a reasonably uncommon problem; there are results on Google but there is no clear one-size-fits-all solution. This is largely due to there being multiple reasons this can occur. Whilst you may be more likely to see this problem if you dual boot Windows with another OS, I started seeing the issue after upgrading my laptop's hard drive.

The Problem

Every day, when finished with the laptop, I click the hibernate button, close the lid and place the laptop away in a drawer. Since upgrading my hard drive however, I've found that the next morning the laptop's battery is completely drained and prompts me like I've let the computer running. Tracking that down today, I discovered that when the hibernate button is pressed now, the screen goes blank for a few seconds before returning me to the lock screen. Still fully powered on, just locked.

Could Not Reconnect All Network Drives in Windows 7

I often see the notification balloon popping up from system tray to tell me that my network drives could not reconnect. I typically see this after I've first turned on my computer or after I've booted from Hibernation.

When I open Computer, I can see my network drives, but they are shown with a red cross indicating that there is indeed a problem with the connection to them. Applications which rely on data from these network drives cannot obtain their data, and fail in their own ways. The particularly annoying aspect of this is that there absolutely no problem with the network connection to these drives. Simply double clicking on the drives will open them up and restore the connection. All applications will function correctly thereafter... until the next time I boot up the machine.

Below is a workaround you can use to ensure your remote drives are available for use when you turn on your PC. For my environment, I'm running Windows 7 64-bit and have a Synology DS411J which is a NAS drive. But really, this should work for connecting any remote network drive.